THIS week, we must fix up the skill errors that hurt us against West Coast if we are any chance of knocking off the Dogs.

It was disappointing not to come away with a win against West Coast.

While the conditions were wet and windy both teams were able to combine for 29 goals and the Eagles made the most of their chances. We made more mistakes than they did and our turnovers in the end cost us the four points. They kicked 6.2 from our turnovers which just shows how much you can be hurt from making skill errors.

We didn’t put the four quarters together which is something I’ve spoken about a few times this year. To be successful you need to be consistent over four quarters.

Unfortunately we have lost Mark Williams with a knee injury but as one door closes, another one opens and there will be a bit of competition for Mark’s spot. It was pleasing to see some good signs for Box Hill in the VFL over the weekend.

Beau Dowler played some good footy and has been playing well over the past couple of weeks. He’s put his hand up and I’m sure he’ll be discussed at match committee. Jordan Lisle is a young guy we’ve drafted at the end of last year and he booted four on the weekend. It is good to see him showing a bit of form.

Despite not having the win/loss ratio we would like, there are still positives. We were thrilled this week to see Max Bailey taken off the injury list after a couple of tough years.

It is super exciting for the club and also for Max. He may play this week for Box Hill and if he does it will be an exciting day for the club. He’s has missed a couple of years of with two knee reconstructions but he has done an outstanding job of getting himself right and hopefully he can saddle up in the VFL.

Stephen Gilham is another one on the way back this week. We picked him last week but he ended up getting pretty crook late in the week. Since it was going to be his first game back and we were flying to Perth it became a non-issue in the end and we had to leave him out.

This week against the rampaging Bulldogs will be a big challenge. The Dogs are playing some very good footy - they are moving the ball really well and attacking with gusto. We are going to have to be at our best to knock them off. The boys are going to have their work cut out for them and we are hoping to bring a strong four-quarter effort.

Recently I’ve been keeping one eye on the future. We’ve rotated our coaching staff through a few different games at the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships and it is exciting to see the game’s future stars at work.

We have a strong recruiting team who monitor these players over the course the year and I’m sure they will continue to watch their development with keen interest up until draft day in November.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.